Emily Westhill runs the best donut shop in Fallingbrook, Wisconsin, alongside her retired police chief father-in-law and her tabby Deputy Donut. But after murder claims a favorite customer, Emily can’t rely on a sidekick to solve the crime—or stay alive.

If Emily has learned anything from her past as a 911 operator, it’s to stay calm during stressful situations. But that’s a tall order when one of her regulars, Georgia Treetor, goes missing. Georgia never skips morning cappuccinos with her knitting circle. Her pals fear the worst—especially Lois, a close friend who recently moved to town. As evening creeps in, Emily and the ladies search for Georgia at home. And they find her—murdered among a scattering of stale donuts . . .

Disturbingly, Georgia’s demise coincides with the five-year anniversary of her son’s murder, a case Emily’s late detective husband failed to solve before his own sudden death. With Lois hiding secrets and an innocent man’s life at stake, Emily’s forced to revisit painful memories on her quest for answers. Though someone’s alibi is full of holes, only a sprinkling of clues have been left behind. And if Emily can’t trace them back to a killer in time, her donut shop will end up permanently closed for business . . .

My review:

Survival of the Fritters by Ginger Bolton is the first book in the new cozy Deputy Donut Mystery series. The main character Emily Westhill runs a donut shop with her father in law in Fallingbrook, Wisconsin and when one of their regular customers is found dead Emily finds herself in the middle of the case.

This series to me has a lot of potential to be a really good one but I didn’t think it stood out and shined much in the first book. Emily was likable enough as a character but I didn’t feel overly drawn to her either. I would have liked to have seen her have a bit more determination in solving the crime instead she seemed to be dragged into investigating.

The book also starts off in the donut shop with a whole group of local elderly ladies attending their knitting club so I was immediately on alert hoping this group would be featured quite a bit with some hilarious hijinks and when that didn’t come about I thought it was a missed opportunity. The main characters in the story felt like they weren’t quite fully developed so the secondary ones seemed to completely hide in the shadows but hopefully we’ll get more in the future.

The setting is a nice one that I enjoyed and I was glad to see some sort of connection to law enforcement giving the main character a bit more believability. There was a possibility of a future love interest but thankfully so far it wasn’t pushed as we just touched on what had happened to our character in the past. In the end I thought while there was room for a bit of improvement this could still lead to a great series overall in the future.